The management of medical treatments for inactive, bed-ridden and/or sedentary patients has been widely proposed and is well understood in the art. In general, the monitoring of patient sedentary positioning has been a time-consuming and laborious process requiring the efforts of a skilled or semi-skilled health care provider. The advent of managed health care and the implementation of health care services by a staff overseeing a large number of patients has complicated such efforts in that many patients require monitoring by a handful of health care personnel. Furthermore, shift changes between health care personnel can make it difficult to provide care when needed as each shift places a new health care worker in a situation where previous medical treatment is not intimately known. Such lack of histological data often leads to inaccurate delivery of timed treatments since the new health care worker may misjudge the timing of health care delivery.
One medical treatment requiring timed and monitored implementation is the repositioning of patients who are substantially confined to a bed or wheelchair. Such patients have an increased risk of contracting several harmful conditions as a result of sedentary positioning for extended periods of time. One such condition is decubitus ulcers which can result from the degeneration of skin tissue often caused by restricted blood and/or oxygen flow to portions of the body, or from prolonged exposure to bodily fluids such as urine that irritate the skin.
The prolonged positioning of a patient that results in a person's body being placed in the same position in a bed or wheelchair for prolonged periods of time frequently leads to decubitus ulcers. Such prolonged positioning may restrict blood flow to major body parts or may apply a significant portion of a patient's body weight to a small portion of their body. If left untreated, advanced stages of decubitus ulcers can pose a significant threat to a patient from related infections from bacterial and/or viral strains. An even greater threat can be imposed from exposure to potentially life-threatening strains such as staph infections. The elderly especially face risk from such infections, particularly as a result of the existence of muscle loss stemming from the aging process.
Additionally, the ineffective or infrequent management of bodily fluids such as bodily waste can lead to periods of extended exposure which can spread bacteria and other organisms. This may also lead to irritating rashes, urinary tract infections (UTI), or yeast infections. Further damage can be caused in the form of harmful and permanent psychological conditions or disorders in persons having such ulcers. For example, such persons can suffer low self-esteem or depression.
Therefore, a number of systems have been developed to address the administering and monitoring of the delivery of patient care. Many of such systems are extremely costly and complex. Only a handful are relatively inexpensive and simple. In the age of managed health care, inexpensive, simple, and effective systems are in great need.
One such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,224, directed to a visual wheelchair seating indicator having a mechanically movable pointer configured for positioning on a graduated time scale and owned by the assignee of the present invention. However, such time monitoring device requires visual identification of the pointer as it is positioned along the time scale and does not provide for physical detection of patient repositioning. Furthermore, such system does not provide for remote alert features in the form of visual, audio and nurse call station monitoring output signals. Even furthermore, such system requires the use of a separate watch or clock which requires a user to first identify the pointer position along the time scale, then identify and compare the actual time from a separate clock in order to determine when a patient needs to be repositioned. Even furthermore, such a system is securely mounted onto a wheelchair and does not provide portable features which enable movement of the seating indicator to accompany the movements of a patient from one sedentary location to another, such as from one bed to another bed, or a chair.
Another such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,583,832, directed to a medical timing device and owned by the assignee of the present invention. However, such system only provides for an audible sound such as an audible alarm sound comprised substantially of a single frequency, and does not provide for visual, audible, and/or nurse call station messaging, particularly remote from a patient location. Even further, such system does not provide for detection of patient repositioning.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a portable, lightweight, and low-cost medical timer/monitor for monitoring patient status. Furthermore, there is a need to provide an apparatus for remotely alerting a caregiver when a patient needs to be repositioned. Particularly, there is a need to provide for a low cost apparatus that can be used with several input and output devices to alert a caregiver to a detected patient condition. Even furthermore, there is a need to provide for such a device in a low-cost and portable manner such that the benefits of such device can be shared by many patients, even those having less financial means. Furthermore, with increases in the rate with which home health care is being implemented, there is a need to provide for lightweight and portable features such that the movement of a patient between sedentary locations, such as chairs, couches, beds and vehicles, enables a caretaker and/or user to transport the patient reposition monitor/reminder as a patient is transported between sedentary locations.
It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide an apparatus of the described character that is of simple and economical construction, that is remotely transportable and operable via battery power and/or external power, that does not obstruct daily activity, in which the apparatus/monitor employed by the patient or other monitoring person is transportable in the hand, pocket or on the person, or in association with the person for monitoring the sedentary inactivity of a patient during an extended period of sitting or lying down, and that indicates a desired audible and/or visual instruction in the form of a visual or audible reminder, to a caregiver at selected intervals and having a desired output.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a timing apparatus for effectively managing repositioning of a patient confined to a bed or wheelchair.
It is another object of the invention to provide an inexpensive apparatus that is easy to manufacture and cost effective to be associated with each bed in a health care facility.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide for sensing of patient repositioning operative to restart timing of patient positioning so as to enable a determination of when a patient needs further repositioning.
Yet still another object of the invention is to provide for remote notification of the need to reposition a patient to a health care giver.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide for record keeping of patient treatments such as patient repositioning undertaken by a patient health care provider.
It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide an apparatus of the described character that is of simple and economical construction, that is remotely transportable and operable via battery power or removable AC power, that does not obstruct daily activity, in which the apparatus/monitor employed by the patient or other monitoring person is transportable between a number of bed or seating positions in the hand or pocket for monitoring the sedentary inactivity of a patient during an extended period of sitting or lying down, and that indicates a desired visual alarm to a care provider at a remote location at selected intervals and having a desired output.